FINANCIAL REPORT
- AMERICAN RESCUE PLAN ACT OF 2021: Jason Brown and I met with Al Leonard last Friday and we expect to present a recommendation at the first meeting in September.
- DIGEST CONSOLIDATIONS: The County continues to review property value consolidations. It appears that the likely date for the BOC to set the millage rate will be at the regular meeting on September 21, 2021. We expect the timetable to be as follows:
- Sat. Sept. 11 – run 5 year history in Calhoun Times
- Monday, Sept 13 – Gordon County Schools set their millage rate
- Tues, Sept 21 – Gordon County sets their millage rate
SIGNIFICANT PROJECTS AND ACTIVITY
- COVID-19: Gordon County is experiencing a surge in Covid-19 cases. The Task Force met last week and attendance was up compared to meetings in June and July. Advent Health reported that the current surge is similar to the worst peak last winter. The Hospital reported that unvaccinated young people are more affected than those 65 and older who are more likely to be vaccinated. Statistically throughout the entire Advent Health network, 98% of the hospitalizations due to COVID are unvaccinated patients. All deaths due to COVID were unvaccinated patients as of last Tuesday. This week, Advent Health Gordon is at 109% capacity. Yesterday, the Hospital Census indicated 40 COVID patients (an all time high number admitted locally), 10 patients in intensive care with eight on ventilators, and 10 patients on hold in the E.R. waiting for a bed. Hamilton Medical Center and other hospitals are showing similar numbers.
The data is consistently demonstrating that the vaccine reduces the severity of the virus and could keep the medical system from being overwhelmed. - JUDICIAL BUILDING CONSTRUCTION: Phase One construction on the Courthouse Annex renovation and addition continues to proceed well and the contractors have started trim work. Phase Two planning is well underway with revised plans under final review from our stakeholders.
- ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT: Regarding the Payne Farm, Steve Parris I met with the developers and their engineers last week. They walked back the initial scope of the project that had been presented as a 1.2 million square foot e-commerce facility with 1900 vehicles per day. The Developers stated the building is speculative and no end user has been identified and could be 800,000 square feet. They also indicated their willingness to install and pay for turn lanes in connection with the development.
- BROADBAND: August 25 is the deadline for providers to submit proposals to bring high speed broadband virtually all un-served homes. We have other RFP’s pending for a Construction Manager at Risk for all remaining SPLOST projects and an on call civil engineering firm. All RFP’s are publically advertised and posted on the county website.
- MISCELLANEOUS ACTIVITY: Over the last two weeks I met with a representative of Advent Health, assisted the Tax Assessor, met with the Sheriff and staff at the S.O., received an emergency radio update, attended the Chamber Government and Community Affairs meeting, had lunch with our State Representatives and two Commissioners and attended the EMS QRC committee.
